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It was a second day of Chicago Blackhawks prospects running through drills and getting their legs ready for a weekend trip to St. Louis to face the Blues and Wild prospects in the Tom Kurvers Showcase. Broadly, the players that you would hope look good and ready to go for this kind of setting (Frank Nazar, Ethan Del Mastro, etc.) all looked the part. For the second-straight day, there was no timeline placed on Artyom Levshunov’s right foot injury that will keep him out of at least the showcase this weekend.
Here are a few takeaways from the second pre-tournament practice in Chicago for the Blackhawks prospects.
Can Colton Dach Break Into the NHL This Year?
Colton Dach is not short on self-confidence. The 2021 second-round pick is going through his fourth prospect camp and preseason with the Blackhawks and comes in as one of the young players looking to battle for a roster spot in the NHL this season. While injuries have bit Colton over the past two years in the WHL with the Seattle Thunderbirds/Kelowna Rockets and in the AHL last year in Rockford, he still feels confident that he has already shown his NHL-readiness.
Speaking after practice on Thursday, Dach repeated how his play on the ice, when healthy, proved that he could hang in the professional ranks. Last year was Dach’s rookie season with the IceHogs and he was tied for eighth on the team in points with 27. But, Dach was limited to just 48 games due to missing time with injury on multiple occasions. His 0.56 points per game pace would have seen him tally 40 points in a full 72-game AHL season, which would have had him fourth on the team and in the Top-20 of all AHL rookies last season.
His game is to play a physical style, play around the net, be a power forward and produce points. That’s what he feels he can be as a professional and it is what IceHogs head coach Anders Sorensen sees in him too.
“His biggest thing is figuring out what he is going to be in the NHL,” Sorensen said of the second-year pro. “I think he’s aware of it but his biggest thing is doing it consistently and then being able to do it consistently at a high level.”
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Being a power forward in the NHL comes with a few different meanings. Very few players in the league now fit the old-school mold of power forward like an Eric Lindros or Mark Messier of the past, and if they do, they are superstars in the league like Mikko Rantanen. Dach isn’t going to fit that mold. At 6’4″ and around 200-pounds, Dach isn’t plowing through people in the NHL to carry the puck to the net. He’ll have to be a physical player in the corners and in front of the net at both ends of the ice, and it helps that he plays with an edge to his game to agitate his opponents.
Doing it consistently, continuing to stay on the ice and play that style will be his biggest hurdle to making it to the NHL at some point, maybe as early as right out of training camp. But with the additions the Blackhawks made in free agency in the forward group (Pat Maroon, Craig Smith, Ilya Mikheyev, Tyler Bertuzzi, and Teuvo Teravainen), Dach’s path is more crowded with legitimate NHL talent ahead of him than it was last season.
“I grew up with Kirby, and he was always an older guy, and I always challenged myself to beat him every time we would do something,” Dach said on Thursday. “So I look at it that way: I’m going in here and trying to earn a spot and take a job, and that’s what I’m going to do.”
That is the mentality he and a large portion of the young players in training camp are going to have to have if they want to prove to the Blackhawks’ coaching staff and management that they are ready for the next level of challenges. And that is exactly what GM Kyle Davidson was striving to do with his offseason additions.
Tom Kurvers Powerplay Units
Not sure how much you can actually take away from special teams units during a prospect showcase, but it’s still fun to try to dissect what role players could be put in when real games begin.
Here’s how IceHogs head coach Anders Sorensen will have the powerplay units line up heading into the weekend.
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It will be most interesting to see how Frank Nazar plays on the right side boards on the top powerplay unit and if he can control the play from that spot. Also, if Landon Slaggert and Colton Dach can play effect net-front roles during the weekend and through training camp/preseason (given the opportunities), it could give them an advantage either in Rockford this season or down the road as they look to solidify careers in the NHL. Both of them are players who will have to be high-activity and physical to stand out at the highest level.
The Boys Are Back In Town
The Blackhawks announced today that training camp will officially begin on Thursday, September 19 at the Fifth Third Arena in Chicago. A full training camp roster will likely be announced this coming Monday, but there was a full group of players already on the ice today that you will expect to see when training camp begins next week.
New arrivals like Tyler Bertuzzi and Pat Maroon were on hand at the Blackhawks practice arena today, same for T.J. Brodie and a healthy Taylor Hall just to highlight a few. Unsurprisingly, Connor Bedard was the last guy off the ice today following the informal workout.
Midseason form already.
The Blackhawks prospects will travel to St. Louis and face the Blues prospects tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m. CT for the first of two games in the Tom Kurvers Showcase. Their second game will be against the Wild prospects on Saturday night at 6:00 p.m. CT. Both games can be found on the team’s YouTube page.
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